In season 1 of HBO’s dark comedy Barry, Anthony Carrigan — who plays the chipper and friendly Chechen mobster NoHo Hank — stole pretty much every scene he was in. We got to know Hank on a deeper level in season 2, and Carrigan’s standout performance earned him his first-ever Emmy nomination. Though the congratulatory text he got from Barry star Bill Hader on the morning nominations were announced was a bit confusing at first.

“I was shooting the new Bill & Ted movie, and I was getting ready for work,” Carrigan tells EW’s The Awardist podcast. “And it was Bill [Hader] who actually texted me and told me the news. He just said, ‘Congrats, dude.’ And I was like, ‘Oh cool, did we get nominated?’ Like, is this the mass text that we all received, a ‘congrats, dude’ from the Bill Hader? But then he was like, ‘No, you got nominated.'”

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Isabella Vosmikova/HBO

To hear more from Carrigan — including how Jean Claude Van Damme influences his portrayal of NoHo Hank — listen to the interview below. You can also listen and subscribe to The Awardist podcast at Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Radio.com, or wherever you get your podcasts.